Home/Arts&Culture/ Netflix boss Reed Hastings' pay soared to almost $39 million a year ago

Netflix boss Reed Hastings' pay soared to almost $39 million a year ago

Sandra Brady |Thursday, April 23, 2020

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In its quarterly earnings report, Netflix stated that 64 million member accounts chose to watch the documentary miniseries, based on the life of Zookeeper Joe Exotic, in its first four weeks of its release. The region saw the second-highest jump in new paid subscribers in the past quarter with more than 3.6 million new membership additions, after only Europe, the Middle East and Africa with 7 million.

The quarter spanned the beginning of stay-at-home orders in the U.S., Canada and around the world, a response to the coronavirus pandemic that apparently led millions to latch onto Netflix for entertainment and comfort when most had nowhere to be but home.

The Walt Disney Company recently said its television streaming service has already won 50 million paid subscribers just five months after its launch in the US.

Netflix said revenue increased to $5.76 billion, up more than 27% compared to the same period in 2019. Netflix added 2.31 million customers in region, its biggest market. Netflix believes that Money Heist season 4 will garner more than 65 million till April 30, making it the most-watched show in 2020.

Netflix Inc.is selling new junk bonds, even as the company sits on a record high cash balance and turned its first quarter of positive cash flow in six years.

The company said on Tuesday that its $750 million unsecured credit facility remains undrawn and it has more than 12 months of liquidity and "substantial financial flexibility". But big brands like NBCUniversal and Disney are also pulling popular shows they had leased to Netflix and showing on their own services instead.

Netflix said it hopes to get voice actors set up in their homes to record future dubs.

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CEO Reed Hastings, who has long affected a brash pose and is never afraid to shiv a rival in these settings, struck a genuinely muted tone from the outset, saying that they're unsure what the future will bring and "our small contribution in these hard times is to make home confinement a little more bearable".

Given Netflix's binge-release strategy, Sarandos noted, "We work really far out relative to the industry". "My hat's off to them", he said.

"Netflix is and will continue to be the media company least impacted by Covid-19", said eMarketer analyst Eric Haggstrom.

"We don't use the words "guess" and "guesswork" lightly", he said.

Netflix shares danced around the closing price in after-market trades that followed the release of the earnings report. The company posted diluted earnings per share of $1.57, below the $1.65 consensus, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

But while the COVID-19 crisis has boosted the company's viewing figures and memberships, its revenue has not spiked at the same rate, which it said is due to a "sharply stronger United States dollar, depressing our worldwide revenue".

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